FireClan's Most Wanted
Episode 7, Season 4 of War. Enjoy <3 FireClan's Most Wanted So I guess a lot happened when I was gone. Apparently Shadowsong's some sort of gangster now and Stormflight's head over paws for a FireClan she-cat. Compared to that, I guess my day was relaxing. As relaxing as it can get, when you're trying to get over the fact you may have killed someone in cold blood. I mean, in my heart, I knew I didn't kill Sunstreak. He let himself go. But I didn't try to help him up, I didn't scream, I didn't cry. I didn't care. I could have saved him, and I didn't. And that didn't even make me feel guilty. We're tromping through high grass and Gorsefur is walking next to me. He glances over every few seconds and I know he expects me to say something, but I don't. All I think about is putting one paw in front of the other, not noticing how he's still limping, and ignoring the fact every time I close my eyes I see Sunstreak plummeting into the frothy river. Apparently we're still in break mode, because our mission is to go to one of the garrisons on the FireClan border and stay there for a few days. Apparently the squad who was supposed to do it got held up and won't be here for another few sunrises. All of us but Adderscar, who's staying in camp to help plan some big event, headed out this morning. So basically we get to lounge around and hope another one of our mortal enemies doesn't show up and try to get vengeance. Not that I'm paranoid or anything. By the time we get in, it's dark and the fireflies have come out. No one's talking because everyone's mad at each other. Gorsefur's mad I won't confide in him, Oakclaw and Briarclaw are mad at Stormflight for falling in love with a FireClan assassin, Stormflight's mad at them for teasing him so he revealed it, Shadowsong's mad at Briarclaw for being so stuck up about rules, and Oakclaw's mad at Shadowsong for not telling him that she was in a gang. Such is life. We all turn into bed early, except for Oakclaw and Shadowsong who volunteer for first watch. I can hear them murmuring as I toss and turn. I think that I've finally managed to drift off to sleep when there's a yowl. "-'s there?" Shadowsong's asking. I tense, ready to jump up if they need help. A dark tabby pads out of the night, "Woah, woah! Here to see Oakclaw!" Oakclaw perks, "Is that Blackstripe?!" "You bet it is!" the tom purrs, then winks. "And I got good news." For a second I think Briarclaw has shrieked because the cry is so high and...feminine. And then I realize the sound is coming from Oakclaw, which makes it a thousand times more disturbing. Immediately, Gorsefur and I jump to our paws and Stormflight jerks awake. Briarclaw continues snoring and Grayleaf has his face buried in his tail. "Oakclaw, I swear to StarClan, I might actually kill you." Gorsefur snarls. I snort, but I can't help to agree with him. Oakclaw looks like a kitten he's so giddy. "Wait, Blackstripe, what number? What number?!" he squeezes his eyes shut and starts muttering. "Please be below eight, please be below eight..." "Seven!" Blackstripe announces proudly. Oakclaw shrieks again. "Please tell me you haven't seduced seven she-cats," I sigh. "No!" Oakclaw prances around us, stopping in front of an amused looking Shadowsong. "You know what this is, don't you?" Shadowsong looked at him and he winked. Her eyes widened. "No." "Yes." "No!" "Yes!" She turned to Blackstripe. "I have to be on it then. What am I?!" "Shadowsong, right?" She nodded frantically and he squinted, then nodded. "Yup. Number six." "What?" Oakclaw cried. "That's so not- oh, who cares. We made it!" "Finally!" Shadowsong crowed. "So, do you want to braid each other's tails or can I ask what's going on?" Gorsefur asks, still sounding half asleep and very grumpy. "FireClan's Most Wanted!" Shadowsong says breathlessly. Gorsefur's eyes go wide. "No way....am I-" "What is FireClan's Most Wanted?" I snap. "It started out as this big propaganda thing in FireClan," Shadowsong explains. "Every season they would release a list of the cats their Clan pretty much hated the most. Public enemies. And it was supposed to be all serious and scary, but it kind of turned into this big flop. Everyone in WaterClan wants to be on that list." "Well, maybe not everyone," Gorsefur amends. "The first three are always the same," Shadowsong continues. "Waterstar, the deputy, the deputy or leader's apprentice. And then the last seven spots pretty much everyone fights over." "Tell us the whole list!" Oakclaw begs Blackstripe. Whiskers twitching, Blackstripe lists off, "Waterstar, Riverclaw, Scorchclaw, Stormflight, Gorsefur, Shadowsong, Oakclaw, Pebbleroll, Brookfall, and some tom named Ravenwing." I feel a roll of shock to hear my name mentioned. Why me, and not...Adderscar? It gives me a rush of panic, and then a sense of triumph. Let them be afraid of me, I think. They killed my family, everyone I knew. Let them be afraid and let them know that I'll come for them. Stormflight, who has crept up behind us, says, "Great. Another reason for FireClan to come looking for me." "How did the recruit beat me?" Oakclaw wails. "And how did Shadowsong beat me?" "Try breaking out of FireClan prison," Shadowsong replies smugly. "Who did you think was doing the breaking?" Oakclaw retorts incredulously. "Does this mean FireClan will be coming after us now?" I ask. Everyone shuts up for a moment. Shadowsong and Oakclaw are still bright eyed, but Gorsefur and Stormflight seem to be at least considering my words. Blackstripe shrugs. "I just know that as soon as Oakclaw went to the Academy and I decided to be a courier that he made me promise if I found out he was on the list I had to run like the wind and tell him." he gave Oakclaw a friendly nudge, nodded to the rest of us, and sprinted off into the night. "Well," Gorsefur says. He looks a little pleased, but also a little worried. Maybe if he wasn't commander he would allow himself to be as jubilant as Shadowsong and Oakclaw. Maybe if he didn't have to deal with the fact that we just became four of FireClan's ten biggest enemies. I press against him. "We should get off the border," Stormflight opts. "Head back to Main, wait for this to cool down a little. We have enough enemies as it is, no reason to go adding more." "It's practically a joke!" Oakclaw yowls. "Don't be such a pansypaws." Stormflight flattens his ears. "Then why were you so eager to be 'less than eight', if it's just a joke?" "Oh, I'm sorry," Oakclaw bares his teeth. "I forgot that some of us have mates to bail them out if FireClan gets them!" Stormflight leaps at him, snarling. Shadowsong tackles Oakclaw to the ground and Gorsefur lunges forward, crying out in pain as a stray lashing leg hits him on his injured leg. Grayleaf and Briarclaw are awake now and rushing for us and everything is too loud and Sunstreak is falling, falling- "Everyone STOP!" I yowl. Everyone freezes and six pairs of eyes meet mine. "You're acting like kits!" I scold, my voice still loud and carrying into the night. "It's a joke list and it doesn't mean anything. We have enough worries as it is, and we don't need to add paranoia or Oakclaw and Stormflight being dirtfaces to that lengthy list! So everyone go to your dens and if I get woken up again tonight, I will slit all of your throats." Turning, I huff off and curl up in my nest. I'm still fuming, but no one makes a noise until Gorsefur lies down next to me. "And that," he purrs softly. "Is why you are number nine." Unfortunately (and rather predictably- I mean, let's be honest, my life kind of sucks that way) I was woken up again that night. At first I thought it was nothing. Shadowsong was breathing softly next to me and I could see Stormflight and Gorsefur's silhouettes as they stood guard. But something was wrong. Something felt wrong. You're imagining things, I told myself. You're probably traumatized and stressed and you're brain is overactive and just being paranoid. I stretched, circled my nest again, and was about to lie back down when something caught my eye. I looked around the den and poked my head outside, just to be sure. Oakclaw's nest was empty. And he wasn't in the camp. "-and then I'll watch him choke on his tail and just when he's about to suffocate, I'll pull it out so he can't..." Shadowsong continues, graphically describing what she's going to do if it's Thundercloud who's got Oakclaw. I'll be sorry if I dragged everyone out of bed and it turns out Oakclaw was using the dirtplace. Sorry to my ears, for making them listen to Shadowsong's gruesome plan, too. "Shh, I think I hear something," Briarclaw murmurs. At first I think it's a ploy to make Shadowsong shut up, but then I hear it too. A slight rustling. We all freeze and crouch as a dark ginger tom pads past where we hide in the bushes. He continues walking around and I realize he must be patrolling. As soon as he's gone, Gorsefur dashes forward, the rest of us in hot pursuit. We're not over the border yet and I wonder what FireClan's plan is. Suddenly, a voice cuts into the night. "What do you mean you only got one?!" I recognize the voice- Lionwing. A slight shudder passes up my spine as I remember trying to reason with the sociopathic she-cat. I'm not sure if I'd rather fight her or Thundercloud- they both terrify me. "Well, it's just, he was kind of largish and heavy and- sorry, I'm not calling you fat or anything..." a whiny voice replies. "No offense taken," I'm relieved to hear that, whatever trouble he's in, Oakclaw isn't dead. Or taking offense to being implied as being fat. "Then why didn't you get some of the other ones?" Lionwing growls through gritted teeth. There's a silence, and she sighs heavily. "Just...fine. We'll get the other ones tomorrow night." There's a muttering and, as we creep closer, I see a wiry dusty brown tom dipping his head to Lionwing. Oakclaw sits beside him, on the other side of several guards. Lionwing turns her attention to him. "Firestar wants you alive, presumably to kill you himself." she meowed easily. "He's probably going to kill all your squad too, you know. Except for his little nephew. Sweet, isn't that? Anyways, I say all this to you, because, for all the hype given to you and your little squad of WaterClan's best and brightest, you'd think they would be more clever than to sit in a clump of bushes and to assume I don't see or smell them." She turned and glared at us. Shadowsong sheepishly waved her tail and Gorsefur strode forward, as though he was in his own Main camp and not about to confront one of FireClan's most deadly assassins. "You're on our territory," he meowed calmly. I can see Stormflight beside me craning his neck, then letting his face fall. I take it Snowflight isn't here. Which is at least sort of comforting because it means we have one less crazy fighter to deal with. And Stormflight won't be so distracted. "Yup," Lionwing looks at him. I look at her back-up- a squad of muscled cats. Obviously the wiry tom she was talking to before is the brains or medicine cat, because everyone else looks like they could break bones. "So, I say finish up your party with Oakclaw and get off," Gorsefur meows, refusing to back down. Lionwing glares at him for a moment and he tips his head. "See, the annoying thing here is that, I know you were trained by Thundercloud. So here's what's going to realistically happen. You're going to threaten to kill Oakclaw unless we back off. Oakclaw will then probably proceed to smack a few heads and we'll fight. And we'll win." Lionwing laughs. Something immediately feels wrong. She's too smart, too capable not to have a plan. To just sit there, whiskers twitching, while we threaten her. I spin around and yowl a warning. Four cats are creeping up behind us. Briarclaw, Grayleaf, and Stormflight, who bring up the back of the group, spin around and launch themselves at the approaching FireClan cats. I turn to help them- Grayleaf's a medicine cat and Briarclaw's not a strong fighter- but a paw clocks me on the side of my head and I crash into Gorsefur. Getting to my paws, I throw myself at the she-cat who clawed me. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Gorsefur pouncing towards Lionwing, who's still laughing. Shadowsong pelting to Oakclaw who struggles against three attackers. Another she-cat rushes me and I slash at both of them, alternating so neither can get too close, but they still press me against a tree. I split one's nose open and she lets out a yowl of pain, but keeps coming, her eyes filled with fury. I try a move I've been practicing with Shadowsong- I slash at their eyes, then roll under their legs. To my surprise, it works, and I manage to knock them both down. I try to catch my breath, only for a moment, when I choke. The ground rushes up to me and I feel a strong paw planting me to the ground. I squirm, but can't get free. Whoever's pinned me is obviously much bigger than I am. Of course, I'm not exactly large. I turn my head, spitting out moss. The recruits have all been pinned as well, and the others are in various stages of being wrestled to the ground. Lionwing smiles down at us, her eyes aglow with the heat of battle. "Firestar wants you all alive, but I'm sure we could stand to loose a few of you." She clearly expects a bigger reaction- or rather, any reaction at all- and huffs a little. "Well, I could kill you. But I have a message." She clears her throat, melodramatically. "Thundercloud wants you to know that he's coming. He's going to kill you all, take his time, and get his revenge." She lowers her voice, like she's sharing a secret. "I don't know what you did to make him mad, but he is not happy." Cheerfully, she signals to her cats and they let us spring up. She waves her tail. "So remember, imminent doom and all of that." Padding away, she stops for a moment in front of Shadowsong. The black she-cat glares at her. "Can I help you?" "No, Thundercloud's just especially mad he didn't finish the job with you." Lionwing sneers, but her eyes are searching Shadowsong's. Shadowsong doesn't flinch, and for a moment... Lionwing turns and stalks off, leading her cats back towards the border. I look around, making sure everyone's okay. Oakclaw spits out some blood and Briarclaw's bleeding, but everyone seems to just be ruffled. We gather, silently. What started out as an amusing middle-of-the-night-wake-up has turned into something you hear about in elder's stories. What will the daring heroes do next? Will the maniacal villain have his way? Will the commander and the pretty soldier get together? Okay, maybe not that last one. "I'll turn myself in," Stormflight says. "It's me he really wants, maybe I can convince him to..." he trails off, not even convinced in his own lie. "We've fought him before, we can do it again," Gorsefur growls. His eyes are cold, but I can see the flicker of terror beneath him. His gaze flashes, from the recruits, to Shadowsong, to Oakclaw. To me. "We have to kill him," Oakclaw says hoarsely. Shadowsong nods. "We have to make a promise. Whichever ones of us he tries to...we keep going. Because we don't matter, we have to take him out. He's a sick, sick monster and we have to put him down." A beat of silence, and then Gorsefur nods. I follow suite, and one by one, the terrified looking recruits do the same. "Whatever happens, to any of us," Gorsefur says. "We keep fighting. Agreed?" "Yes," we all chorus back. Gorsefur nods, looking a little shaky. StarClan help us. Category:Artimas Hunter's Fanfics